Arriaga Ramirez’s opinion of his daughter normally would have stood up to examination. Usually Amanda was clear-headed, did think things through. But that morning she had panicked a little. After all, she was only sixteen, and the sight of the bug unnerved her more than it might have an adult.

At least, she thought it was a bug. The legs which held it tight against the wall were made of metal. It’s body was plastic instead of chitin, and it sent out its messages by methods rather more complex than rubbing hind legs together.

She wouldn’t have seen it at all if she hadn’t bumped the telephone with her hand the first time she’d reached for it. She was going to call Nancy Sue down the street and see if maybe she wanted to come over and gossip and do some homework together. Amanda was assigned the same homework as the rest of the kids. She had the option of attending class or working at home. She’d elected to stay home for the last several school days, pleading fatigue.

When she’d reached for the phone and bumped it the back part had slipped away, exposing the small strip of grey plastic. Leaning close she’d been able to see where it had been fastened to the wall behind the phone, had been able to see clearly the tiny wires that ran from the plastic to places she didn’t think they were supposed to go.

She knew the plastic and wires weren’t part of the phone system. She knew because she hadn’t seen the grey plastic before. There were two other telephones in the house and when she found the plastic and the wires attached to them too she started getting really worried.

Her mom was out shopping. Her dad was working on the boat. She was all alone in the house, a house suddenly filled with nasty little grey spies. The house backed onto a sidearm of the bay and fronted on a quiet, tree-lined street. There were vacant lots on both sides and it was a long walk to the nearest occupied home, Mr. and Mrs. Coxley’s.

Being alone had never bothered her before. There was about as much crime in Port Lavaca as in the middle of the bay. But the two deputies didn’t patrol very much, especially when it was hot out, and when they did make rounds they kept largely to the business district way out by the highway.

Everyone knew what went on in a small town like Port Lavaca, but that didn’t mean they’d know when some strangers came slipping in through an unlocked back door or open window. And she was trapped inside the house, unable to call for help without a mysterious Someone knowing about it immediately because of the omnipresent grey bugs….

Calm down, she ordered herself. You’re getting all excited over nothing. No one was crawling through the window to get at her. No hand appeared around the kitchen doorway leveling a gun at her. They didn’t know that she knew.

She made a thorough check of the rest of the house. In addition to the tapped telephones she found clones of the grey bugs in her mom and dad’s bedroom, under the bed, and in the dining room under the lamp.

She was careful only to look and not touch. Any disturbance might alert whoever had planted the devices. She didn’t want to alarm them. Her mother and father were out together much of the time, but she was almost always home. Still, someone had slipped inside and planted the bugs. The thought made her skin crawl. Someone had entered her sanctuary and done something illegal. Someone had invaded the privacy of her family. What was worse, she knew that if someone could get in to monkey with telephones and light fixtures, they could get in to do other things, too.

But why would anyone want to? Her father was a fisherman. Her mother worked part time at a dress shop. It didn’t take an hour to figure out that it all had something to do with Uncle Jake.

Those people who want to test him must know about his family, she thought. About us. They must be worried about him coming here and them checking up to see what they can find out. What could she do about it? Not a damn thing.

Tears started from the corners of her eyes. What could she do? There was no place else for Uncle Jake to run to. This was the only family he had. She’d been right to suggest meeting him in College Station. But if they were watching the house, they’d see her leave with her mom and dad, and they’d follow, and it might not make any difference.

Should she explain what she knew to her mom and dad? Maybe they’d believe enough to at least alert the Sheriff. Would that matter to these people, as powerful as they seemed to be?

Just get here, Uncle Jake, she thought. Once we’re together we’ll work it out. I know we can. She loved her Uncle Jake like a second father, and he loved her like the daughter he’d never had. She wasn’t going to let these mean people hurt him, no matter how omnipotent they seemed to be. As long as she had an ounce of strength left in her body they weren’t going to get what they wanted. Uncle Jake didn’t have much longer to live. He knew that and he didn’t try to hide it from her. She appreciated that, his honesty. She appreciated everything about him. She wasn’t going to stand by and watch somebody make a guinea pig out of him during his last days.

She told him so later that night.

“What do you mean,” he thought at her, “your house is bugged?”

“Didn’t you ever see any spy pictures, Uncle Jake? You know, bugs. Listening devices. They’re on all our telephones and all over the house. I probably didn’t even find all of them. Somebody’s monitoring our house.”

“I don’t see spy movies, Mandy, but I watch the news. I know what bugs are. I just… it’s hard to believe.” Why should it be? He asked himself. That business outside Phoenix a while back, that was hard to believe, too. Stopping that truck the way he had was even harder to believe, but it had happened.

“Don’t worry, Mandy,” he told her. “I know how to stop them bothering me now.”

Her reply was tinged with exasperation. “Uncle Jake, it’s not that easy. These are smart people. They have money, and they want you. You’re just one man.”

“I’ll take the wheels off any car they send after me.” He was feeling pretty good about himself.

“Listen to me, Uncle Jake. You didn’t listen to me. These people that want you, they’re smart. They’ll figure out you did that to their truck and they won’t give you a chance to do it again.”

“Then how are they going to catch me?”

“They’ll be a lot more subtle the next time, Uncle Jake. Now that they know they can’t run your car off the road, they won’t try to.”

The humming of cars caressing the nearby interstate reached him faintly, there on the bed in the motel room. “What else can I do, Mandy?”

“First off you’ve got to get rid of the car you’re using, Uncle Jake.”

“Get rid of the Galaxie? Mandy, I’ve had that car over twenty years. I can’t just dump it. Besides, if I get rid of the car how am I going to…?”

“You’ve got to get rid of it, Uncle Jake. That’s how they traced you the first time.”

“Well, I don’t know, Mandy. I understand what you’re saying about them not giving me the chance to do the wheel trick again, but I’ve had that car so long.”

“Please, Uncle Jake. You’ve always listened to my advice before.”

“I know, Mandy, but twenty years; that car’s a part of me. How can I just abandon her?”

“What’s he raving about?” The big man standing outside the back of the motel room tried to decipher the old man’s moans as his partner worked on the window screen.

“Beats the hell out of me,” said his partner. “You remember what Drew said, though. This guy’s weird. Just ignore it.”

“Suits me.” The big man checked his watch. “Let’s get him out of there and turn him over to the California people. I don’t like running late.”

“Hey, I didn’t put the damn screen here. Wonder what they want the old guy for?”

The big man shrugged, watched as his partner carefully removed the screen and pushed gently but firmly on the sliding window. It held a moment, then skidded reluctantly on its runners.

“Listen to him babble.” The smaller man’s name was Degrasse. “Sounds like he’s been drinking. That ought to make it easier. We’ll have him out of here in a minute. How’s the wife and kids?”

“Okay,” said Nichols. “Marva’s got her average up to one seventy. How about yours?”

“Julia’s got some female trouble. Nothing serious.”

“That’s tough.”

“Yeah.” They both slipped into the bathroom, their rubber-soled shoes silent against the vinyl tiles.

They waited quietly until their eyes adjusted to the dim light filling the room. It was dark in the bedroom beyond. Now they communicated with gestures instead of words, one man pointing, his companion nodding in assent. They exited the bathroom. The mumbling from the single bed was louder now. They ignored it, concentrating on the business at hand.

Jake had said good-night to Amanda. Now he lay on the bed and considered his plight. Life shouldn’t be so confusing. When he’d retired he had thought he’d left confusion behind. There were the incredibly complex missives that arrived regularly from the social security administration and the welfare department, but he threw most of them in the trash. They’d never given him any trouble about it.

But this. All his life he’d been able to get by without suffering. Because of his age and his talent as a welder he’d even managed to avoid participation in both wars. Now, quite unexpectedly, he found himself running from his warm, familiar little home. He was confused and uncertain and scared, and found himself relying for help in coping with an indifferent, cold world on the advice of his paralyzed grandniece. All because of some silly magic tricks.

She was reluctant to leave him. Her presence was still there: warm, comforting, loving.

“I have to go, Uncle Jake. I’m getting tired.”

“That’s alright, Mandy. I understand.” Strange that their chats should put so much more of a strain on her than on his fragile self. Of course, she was doing most of the work.

“You mind what I told you now, Uncle Jake. You be careful and take my advice.”